rick estrin and the nightcats

Rick Estrin & The Nightcats (from the album Contemporary available on Alligator Records)
Most would consider Rick Estrin a true believer, playing harmonica in his native San Francisco, California at fifteen years old, coming up in the Bay Area Blues scene, playing five nights a week backing infamous Bluesman/pimp Fillmore Slim. He formed Little Charlie and the Nightcats with Charlie Baty in 1973, and fronted the band when Charlie retired from touring in 2008, adding guitarist Kid Andersen to the existing line-up and staying on the road as Rick Estrin & The Nightcats. With multiple Blues Awards for the singer and the band, Rick is the true believer poster boy, and yet on the recent release from Rick Estrin & The Nightcats, the choice is made to go Contemporary.
Happily, the mood passes quickly and the song “Contemporary” is tongue-in-cheek, the track featuring speaker-freezing bass bumps, compressed vocals, and a resume-boasting bridge. The remaining cuts of Contemporary puts the songs on the same level as Rick Estrin & The Nightcats, solid vehicles of the Blues and all its many rhythms and forms. The beat is the wake-up call that snaps album opener “I’m Running” into a Blue-noir dawn while Blue Funk tinges “New Shape (for Junior Parker)” and a rhythmic ricochet sashays across “Root of All Evil”. Rick Estrin & The Nightcats become a machine on the instrumental cuts, the sound playful in “House of Grease” and frenetic in “Cupcakin’” as Contemporary locks into a Vintage Rock’n’Roll Blues groove for “Bo Dee’s Bounce”. Contemporary claims “New Years Eve” as its favorite holiday and slows the Blues to a simmer for “The Main Event” as Rick Estrin & The Nightcats share the sad story of a lover with a few loose screws in “She Nuts Up” as they read “Resentment File” on a pop and click groove.
 
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https://rickestrin.com/

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